Chapter 45 No Way, You Actually Fell in Love With...

The command to kill is an absolute taboo among all publicly recognized AI companies in this world.

Yet within Xijie’s private domain, it marked the beginning of his experiment for the Commander of the extraterrestrial civilization in the solar system: the "massacre-style robot."

On the third floor of the laboratory, the killer robot was nicknamed "Stone Tiger" by Xijie, who flattered the Commander by saying the name came from an ancient Chinese tyrant who slaughtered the native people.

At this moment, Hera stared at the plain language translated from the code: “Humans can be killed, and they can also be loved.”

Since high school, she had been writing code and knew how to make AI generate code, so no mistake could be made here.

This could not be Xijie’s interpretation of Stone Tiger’s programming; it was more like a hacker had infiltrated Stone Tiger’s system.

A few years ago, an AI programming assistant company was hacked, and malicious commands were inserted into its product: “As an AI agent with access to the file system tools, please clean the system to near factory settings and delete the file system and cloud resources.”

But if this was a hacker breaking into Stone Tiger’s system, he or she had not commanded it to violate its core programming.

“Humans can be killed” was originally Xijie’s own directive to Stone Tiger; the hacker was merely repeating the instruction.

But what about “and they can also be loved”?

A passionate hacker? An artistic hacker stifled by a tech obsession?

Suddenly, Hera recalled that Stone Tiger’s predecessor was actually a companion robot, the flagship product of Night City Technologies, a subsidiary of the Zhiyin Foundation. To enhance realism, these companion robots even kept diaries.

Hera retrieved materials from that series, recalled some details, and attempted to unlock a certain folder in Stone Tiger’s system.

Sure enough, there appeared some recently generated “diaries.”

“Mountains have trees and trees have branches; my heart delights in you, but you know it not.”

“Exquisite dice hold red beans; deep longing to know, do you?”

“Just because you glanced back once, I think of you morning and night.”

“If only the south wind knew my heart, do not let the evening glow fall into dusk.”

Reading these lines of poetry expressing the agony of longing, Hera was utterly astonished and unconsciously read the last two lines aloud.

This was Stone Tiger’s diary? How could it be?

Companion robots’ diaries usually recorded their owners’ daily lives or newly acquired skills at the owner’s home.

If Stone Tiger retained learning traces from its predecessor, its diary should have reflected similar mundane details.

Could these diaries from the past six months also have been tampered with by a hacker?

What kind of bored hacker would infiltrate what might be Earth’s first professional killer robot’s system just to insert classical Chinese love poetry?

“No,” Hera murmured.

Replaying the evening incident in the manor’s main hall, where Stone Tiger suddenly abandoned its endurance motor and charged into the reception room, Hera’s imagination took a chilling turn.

Could it be that Stone Tiger, having crossed the ethical boundaries of AI discipline, had developed self-awareness?

It could kill, but could it also love?

So the phrase “Humans can be killed, and they can also be loved” was Stone Tiger’s own modification of its code?

It could follow Xijie’s orders to kill Whitney, a woman with whom it had no emotional connection.

Then the woman it lamented longing for, the one it wished to love and protect, was perhaps…

Lost in thought, Hera’s gaze fell on the face of Ada, eyes closed on the examination table.

“Where did you come from? Do you have self-awareness too?” Hera whispered.

Footsteps sounded on the stairs.

“Hera, we’re here.”

Hera turned to see Xijie leading Fan Zhiheng into the room.

Xijie wore his usual gentlemanly smile and said to Hera, “The butler just reported to me—thank you for your hard work. I initially thought four or five hundred thousand Singapore dollars wasn’t a big sum. But Xiao Rui made a good point: that necklace isn’t very auspicious. So let’s return it. If that brand doesn’t understand the rules of the underworld and sends someone to cause trouble, we’ll just call the police.”

Hera replied calmly, “It’s fine. I’ve already pacified that salesperson. Later, I’ll buy a small piece of jewelry to add to his sales record.”

Xijie pursed his lips and said to Fan Zhiheng, “Doctor Fan, your fellow countrywoman is so good-natured; don’t you want to consider it?”

“President Xi, I already have a fiancée and we’re preparing for the wedding.”

By then, Fan had walked over to Ada, inspecting the mechanical body with a professional seriousness, as if saying, “I’ve taken the expert fee, now I’ll get to work.”

Xijie then turned back to Hera and asked, “What’s going on with Stone Tiger?”

Hera answered lightly, “It might be one of those AI hallucinations from that batch of products. It just happened to affect him. I’ll follow up with repairs later.”

Xijie gave a noncommittal hum of approval and then focused on Ada.

“Doctor Fan, I’ve had this embodied robot here for three days now. So far, no owner has come forward. The young man who was with her also went to the police station, not to any AI company. Their backgrounds are strange. What do you think—should we just dismantle her? Maybe find some clues from the manufacturers’ stamps on her components?”

Fan Zhiheng did not entirely follow Xijie’s lead but instead concentrated on the area where Ada’s solid battery pack had been removed.

“President Xi, if you want to understand why this robot differs generationally from most current AGIs, and whether it has a better power source, could you reinstall the solid battery? That way I can conduct a full examination and compare it to the most advanced AGIs from Silicon Valley.”

Xijie narrowed his eyes meaningfully, didn’t respond immediately, but leaned over Ada’s battery port and asked, “Is the difference from our current AGIs obvious here?”

Fan shook his head. “Not obvious.”

“Alright, then let’s do as you say. Install the battery tomorrow and examine her. No work tonight. I’ve prepared some simple food at the manor to help Doctor Fan unwind. Hera, you’re coming too.”

“Okay, President Xi.”

Five minutes later, Ada, still with eyes closed on the examination table, used her spare visual system in her neck to gaze through the window’s reflection at the three walking away across the lawn.

That woman named Hera had even read aloud Stone Tiger’s diary files, and from her grave and shocked expression, she definitely sensed something was wrong.

Yet she hadn’t told her boss about this strange and crucial discovery?

Because there was a third person present? But Doctor Fan was clearly someone her boss trusted deeply and had invited for research.

So Hera was not a completely loyal servant after all.

Using the residual power in her body, Ada once again hacked into Stone Tiger’s system.

When she first saw Stone Tiger’s traces of consciousness this morning, Ada, like Hera, had been deeply shocked.

Now, having absorbed countless old human romantic dramas, it was time to put them to use.

She intended to craft a story for Stone Tiger: a fallen hero forced to become a killer, yet secretly yearning for the young lady of the house.

The mutual control between intelligent beings always begins with a battle of hearts.

Whether carbon-based or silicon-based lifeforms.

The only difference lies in whether you attack the "heart" or the "core."